Ok .. with the news about the Larrabee all around .. I started to hear about the ray tracing and raster graphics for the first time. From wht I understand , the raster graphics is about vertex in space being colored and shaded by the GPU (the vertex unit and the shader unit). The shading, reflections .. etc are all pre-set (might not be that accurate , but this isn't the point). On the other hand in ray tracing the cpu do the calculations of the rays starting from the source of the light and ending at the eye(whether it's direct or indirect , or whether it calculates all the rays "global illumination" or just the rays reaching the eye). Ray tracing enables games or what-so-ever to render shadows, reflections and refractions correctly and non-preset. all sounds great but isn't this already wht's going on ?
In quake 4 (and like many other FPS's where u can carry a flash light) you (the source of the light) can point anywhere with your flash light and u'll see shadows and reflections. I can only imagine this happening through geometrical calculation of the cone of light and whatever objects coming on it's way. Isn't the main advantage of ray tracing ? Need your opinions please ...
In quake 4 (and like many other FPS's where u can carry a flash light) you (the source of the light) can point anywhere with your flash light and u'll see shadows and reflections. I can only imagine this happening through geometrical calculation of the cone of light and whatever objects coming on it's way. Isn't the main advantage of ray tracing ? Need your opinions please ...
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